A GREAT HURT

your death hath done me a great hurt
the sharp blade of absence hath
pierceth my heart

Death speaks in italics
and an odd old fashioned diction
that's catching

all this hath & hath not
you present only
by your absence

day after day I have to live
your death...
...hath done me a great hurt

*

THE ORDER OF THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

I was remembering fragments out of this as by the waters of the Liffey I sat down and wept.

"MAN, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.

In the midst of life we are in death. . .

Thou knowest, LORD, the secrets of our hearts. . .

FORASMUCH as it hath pleased Almighty God. . .

I HEARD a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write. . ."